By Marin Scott

In a matter of months, the coronavirus outbreak has taken the world by storm. By devastating communities, taking hundreds of thousands of lives and effectively shutting down entire nations, the virus is a part of every moment of every day. And whatever holds the nation’s attention, holds journalists’ attention.

This is as it should be; now more than ever, strong journalism is needed for reporting the facts, clarifying complex explanations and providing people with the proper information that will keep them safe. As a global community we are facing a rapid moving, ever-changing threat.

But in the panic that is COVID-19, we have once again overlooked our second threat—one that moves much slower but is just as dangerous, if not more: climate change.

A controversial, divisive and urgent topic to cover, climate change has never been a top priority for American news organizations. Guardian journalists Kyle Pope and Mark Hertsgaard put it plainly when they said, “Judging by the climate coverage to date, most of the US news media still don’t grasp the seriousness of this issue. There is a runaway train racing toward us, and its name is climate change.”

Which is true. In a study conducted by Media Matters for America, the group found that only 0.7% of all “corporate broadcast nightly and Sunday morning shows” programming was related to climate change, and this is after the same news networks increased their climate coverage by 68% between 2018 and 2019.

In his article for Columbia Journalism Review, Hertsgaard only mentioned the Washington Post and New York Times as two newsrooms with strong reporting on climate change in print and online media. While he mentioned the spike in climate coverage across all news sources in recent years, due in large part to international protests, it does not change the fact that newsrooms have not given the climate crisis nearly as much attention as other issues.

“The press has never treated the climate story with anywhere near this level of attention or urgency,” Hertsgaard wrote in his article when discussing the coverage of climate change to that of COVID-19.

Though it may appear that climate reporters like Hertsgaard and Pope are complaining about the immense amount of reporting on COVID-19, this is not the case. Their argument is that something as deadly and disastrous as global warming should be reported on with the same fervor as its sinister equal, the coronavirus.

So why is it that the current climate crisis is practically neglected by newsrooms while the coronavirus takes center stage?

According to Hertsgaard and Pope, climate change is simply not that interesting, especially in comparison to a global pandemic. News stations and papers are having a hard time justifying the resources, time and money that it takes to cover climate issues when few care to read, watch or listen to it.

With the constant changes in policy in response to COVID-19, a rising infection and death rate and the dissemination of rumors about the virus, newsrooms are getting all hands on deck in an effort to deliver solid, factual reporting. Many climate journalists who once dedicated their entire careers to reporting on and informing the public about climate change are now finding themselves waist-deep in coronavirus news.

News organizations have decided there is simply no space for climate coverage in today’s news cycle, a choice that puts the world in danger.

“The contrast between the media’s coverage of the coronavirus and the climate crisis illuminates another core truth about the media,” Hertsgaard wrote. “Collectively, the media exercises perhaps the greatest power there is in politics: the power to define reality, to say what is—and what is not—important at any given time.”

This power will decide whether or not our politicians, our government and our audience care about climate change. If we choose to report on the devastating effects of the coronavirus without covering the effects of global warming, then we are choosing an uncertain future. Now more than ever it’s our responsibility as journalists to save the world.